New IWGP Heavyweight champion Jay White was on Talk Is Jericho and discussed his transition to becoming the top star in the company. 2018 was a huge beginning for White as he defeated Kenny Omega to win the IWGP US Championship and while the Bullet Club leader eventually dropped the title months later to Juice Robinson, White’s star still continued to rise throughout the following the months in New Japan:
“It all kind of gets passed down. That’s why I think as great as New Japan is, whenever the opportunities come up the guys always make the most of it. The last year has been good and helping me to build up to that position as well. Just to make it that much easier. For example, I wasn’t noticed that much last night as I was a year ago, of course. But for any of the other big matches, I wasn’t as noticed as a lot of people would usually expect or think.”
White also speaks on what inspired him to become a professional wrestler and like many superstars of today, it’s because he grew up watching WWE:
“I used to watch it when I was younger obviously, probably about 2004. I watched until the later teen years and then I kind of grew out of it. Then I finished school and I was working for a friend’s dad. They had a competition on the radio to send someone to WrestleMania in 2011. Might as well just call it up. So I called it up and won a competition to go into the draw to do it. There were a bunch of people in this draw. I ended up winning the competition.”
“It was kind of that that made me think I’d never go to WrestleMania, let alone win the competition. Why can’t I actually try this and try to be a wrestler. I think around that time, 2011 at least, it was kind of changing what smaller guys were able to get into instead of what it was before. So I won that trip at WrestleMania and that kind of re-inspired me. I kept working, got some money, left and went to England.”
Check out the full episode where White continues to talk about his professional wrestling career including the evolution of his character in New Japan.